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****NEW REWARD LEVEL -- $500****

For a pledge of $500, you will receive the printed manuscript of To Breathe Free which I will use to make major revisions based on the editor’s suggestions. A one-of-a-kind document! Also receive a limited edition, signed, and dated greeting card with To Breathe Free’s cover on the front. Receive 2 copies of To Breathe Free for yourself. And I will also email a copy of To Breathe Free in either EPUB or MOBI to up 25 of your friends.

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Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for watching my video and checking out this project.

This is not my first attempt at raising funds on Kickstarter for my novel To Breathe Free. On April 26th, my first Kickstarter project deadline was reached but the funding goal was not successful, mostly because of time. Kickstarter suggests 30 days so I launched my first project with a deadline of 31 days. However, it just wasn’t enough time to raise awareness for an endeavor like To Breathe Free.

Due to all the positive responses from family, friends, and strangers and because I’m never one to give up on a dream, especially when I’m responsible for the dream of a loved one, I have decided to relaunch my Kickstarter campaign for the publication of To Breathe Free. With this relaunch, I have lowered my funding goal, placed my deadline at the maximum Kickstarter campaign time of 60 days, and created a new and unique incentive for the $25 mark, which is a limited edition To Breathe Free greeting card with a personal thank you message and 3 copies of TBF, two for you (one in EPUB and one in MOBI) and one for a friend as a gift.

In the text below, you can read a synopsis of To Breathe Free, learn more about me, learn more about what you’ll receive for joining our journey, and read how I’ll be using your pledge to bring To Breathe Free to life. Please be sure to read it all before you make a pledge so that you’re familiar. Please also note that the text and video of this project are derived from my first project, which can be viewed here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tobreathefree/to-breathe-free-a-novel . Some aspects of the text and video were edited and altered to reflect new information such as the new incentive and funding goal.

Thank you to all those who have returned and to all the new supporters who have joined us this time around! I appreciate your time, consideration, and help.

Have
you ever been completely engulfed and consumed by an idea or goal that
all 86,400 seconds of your day—even those fleeting moments upon your
pillow at night as you ponder the future or life’s unanswerable
questions, or those hazy, semiconscious moments as you awake—are fixated
on that goal or idea?

To Breathe Free is that sort of idea and goal for me.

I must publish this novel and I cannot sleep soundly until I do.

Two major goals are fueling this desire, as I talked about in my video.

One,
I want to keep my Grandfather’s dream alive, helping his writing reach
as many people as possible so that it can be enjoyed “…and perhaps to be
remembered” by readers as he wished for in his poem "Is what I am Where
I am," which I recite in my video.

My second
goal is to write the first “Great American Novel” to be initially and
only published in electronic format, or the first "Great American e-Novel."
Just trying to write the “Great American Novel” in print is a lofty
goal. As an ebook, it is even more difficult, since the electronic
format is still in its infancy. Ebooks are changing things though and
are only going to become a more powerful force in literature and
culture.

And why not aim for a large goal? Life is too short to hold back.

I have written a manuscript for To Breathe Free of roughly 104,000 words, which comes out to around or under 420 pages if it were printed in standard book size and format.

I
have made many revisions and I’m proud of what I’ve written in those
104,000 words but I also know that I need assistance in making To Breathe Free even better so that I can realistically strive for the “Great American Novel.”

Synopsis of To Breathe Free

***Spoiler alert: I contemplated how much to reveal about the story of To Breathe Free
in this synopsis, but for this Kickstarter project I need to be open
and honest with you. So the following is quite detailed but certainly
does not reveal everything and To Breathe Free still needs to be read in its entirety for the following to be fully understood, appreciated, and experienced.***

Lonely, lost, and incomplete, the twenty-something narrator of To Breathe Free
seeks refuge and answers in New York City and in his family’s past. A
past in which his Great-Grandmother, Mildred, has just been orphaned by
an automobile accident at the age of twelve, and in which his
Great-Grandfather, Thomas, the black sheep of his wealthy Connecticut
family, sets out for New York City to restart his young life.

From
here, American Dreams are chased as Mildred also journeys to New York
from her native England, while Thomas becomes a newspaper writer and a
husband to his wife Nora and father to their four boys: Theodore,
William, Dylan and Christian.

Just when American Dreams have been captured, they are quickly slaughtered and sacrificed.

Nora
deserts her four boys and her husband Thomas. Poverty quickly engulfs
them, forcing Thomas to do the unimaginable and surrender his boys.

Thomas doesn’t accept defeat and works to pull himself out of poverty and his boys out of their orphanage.

After
being reunited with his boys, the Great Depression hits, putting all
that Thomas has worked for at jeopardy again. The Depression strains
Mildred’s home life too, while her husband fools with her greatest fear:
being abandoned.

WWII offers the country a way out of its
circumstances and a just cause to empower the nation and its young men,
including Thomas’ boys.

Theodore, William, Dylan, and Christian enlist to fight. Their father is full of pride, and of fear, as they are sent overseas.

To Breathe Free
now follows Dylan, the narrator’s Grandfather, as he and readers are
pushed to the frontlines of the Battle of the Bulge in the snowy
Ardennes Forest. In this ancient landscape, Dylan experiences the
horrors of man, the beauty of nature, and salvation of writing.

Upon a safe return home, Dylan and his brothers quickly start their lives.

Dylan becomes married to Mildred’s daughter, Abigail, and moves to suburban New Jersey where they begin their own family.

The
new generation is born, including the narrator’s mother Aubrey, but old
fates return as Dylan and Abigail's marriage collapses.

The
cycle of these old fates are then linked back to the present-day and the
young narrator’s own short history. As he walks around Manhattan, the
narrator reflects on his father deserting him and his sister when he was
nine years old, and of the years his father savagely beat his mother
Aubrey right in front of their young eyes.

While following the narrator and his family, To Breathe Free
constructs a mosaic of Americans who are living different, yet similar
experiences of “yearning to breathe free” as Emma Lazarus wrote in her
poem “The New Colossus” from which my novel’s title pays homage to.

As it pays homage to history, To Breathe Free
encapsulates the present and looks towards the future of America. While
doing so, it courageously explores difficult issues such as racism,
homophobia, depression, politics, war, religion, poverty, and
immigration.

About me

Prior to writing To Breathe Free
I have been an entrepreneur since I was fourteen years old (I'm currently 24). I have launched a variety of businesses since then, from a
search engine, to a music site for struggling artists, to my most recent
and most successful venture Lyved.com.
Lyved is a blog that I started in 2008. I, along with guest writers,
write on “life and living it” as our slogan goes and have always aimed
to inspire, motivate, and provoke deep thought in our readers. In the
past four years Lyved has reached well over a million people worldwide
and has been linked by such major sites as Entrepreneur .com, Portfolio
.com, and CBSNews .com. Today, it continues to make an impact on
readers.

In addition to all of the above, I'm also set to achieve a Bachelor's degree in English this May.

As
attested to my entrepreneurial and writing background, I am creative,
very independent, very driven, and possess marketing savvy. Crucial
assets I will use to make To Breathe Free a success.

What you’ll get for helping out and joining this journey

For a pledge under $4 – You will receive a thank you email containing an update at the launch time of To Breathe Free.

For a pledge of $4 - You will receive a thank you email with ONE DRM-Free copy of To Breathe Free in your choice of EPUB or MOBI format sent via email.

For a pledge of $8 – You will receive a thank you email with TWO DRM-Free copies of To Breathe Free via email. One in EPUB and one in MOBI format. If you ever switch to a different ereading device or app you’ll have the freedom to easily transfer To Breathe Free over.

OR for a pledge of $8 - You can receive a thank you email with ONE copy of To Breathe Free in the format of your choice and provide a friend’s email. Your friend will then receive the second copy of To Breathe Free
as a gift from you. When choosing this pledge please think about what
format you would like your friend to receive their copy in.

For a pledge of $25 - You will receive a limited print greeting card with the cover of To Breathe Free on the front and a personal thank you note, signed and dated on the back. These greeting cards will be professionally printed with a maximum print run of 100 copies and will only be available through this Kickstarter campaign. With a $25 pledge, you will also receive TWO copies of To Breathe Free for yourself. One in EPUB and one in MOBI format. And provide a friend's email and I'll send them a copy of To Breathe Free in either EPUB or MOBI format.

***NEW PLEDGE LEVEL*** For a pledge of $500 - You will receive the printed manuscript I use to revise To Breathe Free. The major edits will be based on my editor's suggestions and handwritten by me. Also receive one of the limited print greeting cards as mentioned above. Receive
TWO copies of To Breathe Free for yourself. One in EPUB and one in MOBI format. And provide up to 25 email addresses of your friends and family, and they will receive a copy of To Breathe Free in either EPUB or MOBI format.

EPUB
is a standard ebook format that works with iBooks, Nook, Sony eReaders,
Kobo, and an assortment of other iOS and Android book apps. And the
MOBI ebook format works with Kindle readers and Kindle apps. I have kept
To Breathe Free DRM-Free for both formats so that you’ll enjoy
more freedom and convenience. "DRM" means “Digital Rights Management.”
It is an encryption placed on ebooks by publishers and authors that
attempts to prevent illegal sharing and downloaded. However, it also
prevents readers from easily moving their books to different devices and
creates other annoyances. While I don’t want people to illegally share,
download, or profit from To Breathe Free, I also have great trust in each of you and every one of my readers.

(Please note that I cannot assist you with any technical issues that may arise with uploading and viewing your copy of To Breathe Free
in your choice ebook app or ereader. There are some readers and apps
that allow you to easily upload your ebooks via USB cable or by opening
an email attachment, while others don't have such features. I cannot be
held accountable for that. If you have any problems please contact your
ereader or app’s customer support. Please also note that you are
responsible for any data fees that your ereading service of choice may
charge for uploading content to your device or app.)

Can’t afford to donate?

No
worries at all! I completely understand and I still would love it if
were part of this journey with all of us. If you can’t donate, please
instead consider Tweeting, Facebooking, blogging, emailing, or sharing
my project in any other way. Please look directly under the video above
to find a Facebook like button, Twitter tweet button, video embedding
code, and a shortened link that brings you to this page.

Sharing my project in this way would be just as valuable, appreciated, and helpful in keeping our dreams alive.

And if you can donate, sharing on Facebook, Twitter, through email, your blog, or wherever is greatly appreciate too.

Funding goal and what I’ll do with your pledge

I
have set my funding goal as a minimum of $2,000. I will be working hard
to raise more though so that I can hire the most experienced,
dedicated, and enthusiastic of the freelance editors I have already
spoken with. If any funding is left over after working with this editor,
I will use it towards publishing To Breathe Free and for raising awareness of my novel, as I describe in more detail right below.

Many of the aspects of bringing To Breathe Free
to electronic publication I will be performing myself. As you can see
above and in my video, I’ve already designed a book cover. I have a
preliminary website set up which you can view here: www.tobreathefree.com
. I also already know how to format my novel so that it works properly
with all the major ebook readers and apps. And I will be using my social
media and marketing skills to spread the word about To Breathe Free. So I am not particularly seeking funding for these aspects of bringing my novel to fruition.

My
primary need with funding is to hire an exceptional freelance editor
for an in-depth read and critique of my manuscript and assistance with
fixing any problems such as plot holes, characterization, flow,
dialogue, or anything else that may need work. I think one of the
biggest problems with self-published ebooks is that they lack proper
editing. Not just editing to find typos but developmental editing where
editors push writers to work harder and objectively look at their work. I
am open-minded enough to know that my manuscript for To Breathe Free
needs assistance while still remaining extremely proud of what I’ve
written and loyal to the distinct voice that I portray in the story.

After
working hard on revisions to address the problems that the editor finds
in my manuscript, if I feel it’s necessary, I may seek a second read
and critique from the editor and further assistance with any problems
that may still exist.

I’ve already spoken with professional and
reputable freelance editors who have worked in the book publishing
industry in New York City. They are compelled by To Breathe Free and are interested in assisting me. All I need to get things in motion is adequate funding.

As
I was mentioning above, if any funding is left over after working with
the freelance editor and being satisfied with the revisions I make, I
will use it towards other costs such as purchasing ISBNs (which are
needed to sell with many ebook retailers), for advertising To Breathe Free
through traditional online ads in conjunction with my social media and
personally-driven marketing campaign, and anything else that pertains to
raising the awareness for To Breathe Free and bringing it to more readers.

Other details

Here are a few other details to note about this project:

First, I will be doing my very best to get the revisions of To Breathe Free
finished by the listed deadline for your incentive rewards. I guarantee
that I will work every moment I can. However, revisions do need
patience and focus. I will keep you updated if there is any delay.

Second,
since major revisions will be done to my manuscript, the names,
characters, parts of the plot, or other details in the above synopsis
could be altered in the final published version. However, the core of To Breathe Free
will remain. Also, the length may change. It could be longer or shorter
than what my manuscript is now, but it will still remain the length of a
novel.

Thirdly, as mentioned above, To Breathe Free explores a variety of difficult and polarizing topics such as racism, homophobia, war, politics, and religion. To Breathe Free
needs to be daring and realistic with its portrayal of these subjects
and its characters. Therefore, profanity and derogatory words are used
and passages may be very uncomfortable or graphic to some readers. To Breathe Free is NOT
appropriate for children. If you have a weak stomach or do not want to
support polarizing topics, vulgar words, or graphic depictions, please
do not pledge any funds. Because tastes differ, you will not receive a
refund if you do not like the content of To Breathe Free. You
also cannot ask me for a refund for any other reason. However, be rest
assured that you will receive your incentive based on the pledge you
give, even if there is a delay. If there is any problem with your
delivery of To Breathe Free, please contact me at
email@tobreathefree.com and we will solve the problem as long as it
takes. If for some reason I cancel my project before the deadline is up,
do note that you will not be charged. And like the rest of the
Kickstarter projects, you will not be charged for your pledge if my
project’s minimum funding goal ($2,000) is not achieved.

Lastly, I’d like to give credit again to the following:

- Library of Congress for access to the following public domain images (listed in order of appearance in video):

Thank you!

And thank you
so much for taking the time to consider my project and thank you in
advanced for your help. If you’d like to connect feel free to follow me
on Twitter: http://twitter.com/andrewgalasetti , “Like” To Breathe Free’s Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/tobreathefree , bookmark To Breathe Free’s website: www.tobreathefree.com
, or feel free to message me here on Kickstarter, post on the comment
page, or email me at email@tobreathefree.com with any questions,
concerns, or comments you may have.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $8 or more
About $8

A thank you email with 2 copies of To Breathe Free. 1 in EPUB and 1 in MOBI format. OR have 1 copy sent to you and the other emailed to a friend in either format as a gift from you. (Both formats of To Breathe Free are DRM-Free)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $25 or more
About $25

Receive a limited edition greeting card with the image of To Breathe Free’s book cover on the front and on the back, a handwritten thank you note along with my signature and the date. The greeting card will be 4x6 inches, printed on gloss cardstock, and have a maximum print run of 100 cards (The cost of mailing your card is included in your $25 pledge).

With this $25 pledge, also receive 2 copies of To Breathe Free for yourself, 1 in MOBI and 1 in EPUB format. And provide a friend’s email and they’ll receive a copy in either format as a gift from you. (Both formats of To Breathe Free are DRM-Free)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $500 or more
About $500

Receive a one-of-a-kind document -- the printed manuscript of To Breathe Free which I will use for major revisions based on my editor’s suggestions. The revisions will be handwritten and may include such editorial changes as new characters, removal of characters, new dialogue, deletion of dialogue, new scenes, and other changes that grant you access behind the inner workings of what To Breathe Free looked like before publication. With this $500 pledge, also receive 1 limited edition, signed and dated greeting card, same as in the $25 incentive level (The cost of shipping of both the manuscript and greeting card are included in the $500 pledge). Receive 2 copies of To Breathe Free for yourself, 1 in MOBI and 1 in EPUB format. And provide up to 25 email addresses of friends or family members and they will receive a copy of To Breathe Free in either format as a gift from you.